The Battle of Makino is a classic battle in the history of our country, and is often called by later generations as the battle of benevolence and righteousness over the brutal "Shun Tian Ying Min". After this battle, the Shang Zhou Ding Revolution was completed, and Ji Fa, the king of Wu of The Victorious Fang Zhou, became the revered Ming Emperor of later generations, while the defeated Fang Shang Emperor Xin became an example of a tyrant.
Archaeology confirms that King Wu of Zhou destroyed the "lower three abuses" method, and was later whitewashed by Mencius
According to the excavated ancient book "Bamboo Book Chronicle", it is recorded that "Wending killed the seasonal calendar, (Emperor Yi) the second year of the Zhou people cutting down merchants." Wen Ding was the grandfather of King Shang, while Ji Li was the grandfather of King Wu of Zhou. After Wen Ding's death, King Huan's father Emperor Yi succeeded to the throne, and the Zhou people attacked again, but were repulsed by the Shang army. When king Shang took the throne, "he was imprisoned in Xi Bo in TheOry".
In a few words, we have sorted out two key messages: 1. Shang zhou enmity has been entangled for at least three generations, not only because of the cruelty of the king of The Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou people rebelled against the rebellion; 2, the Shang Dynasty had absolute military superiority over the Zhou State, in order to repeatedly defeat the invading Zhou army and imprison its monarch Xi Bohou.
After Xi Bohou was released and returned to China, he never again used commercial troops in his life, but turned around to run and win over the various princely states, laying the foundation for the national strength of "Hou Ge Yu Zhou of Kyushu". In the ninth year of King Wu of Zhou, the Zhou people decided to cut down the merchants again. However, when the combined forces of the princes arrived in Mengjin, King Wu of Zhou made the decision to withdraw his troops halfway, on the grounds that "the female does not know the destiny of heaven, and she has not been able to do it."
According to the excavated oracle bones, Emperor Xin of the King of Lu fought countless battles in his lifetime and had extremely rich combat experience, which is also consistent with the record in the history books that the King of Lu "tied the jackal with his hands, chased four horses with his feet, and was brave and not micro; he won a hundred battles, the princes were intimidated, and the power was not light".
On the other hand, King Wu of Zhou, except for the Battle of Muye, the Zhou people's history books hardly see any other records of King Wu of Zhou's conquests, and it is obvious that compared with King Huan, King Wu lacked actual combat experience. The sudden withdrawal of Mengjin's troops also shows that the main force of the Shang Dynasty still maintained a military advantage over the combined forces of the princes led by the Zhou people, so that King Wu of Zhou did not dare to act rashly.
1. Sneak attack
There was an inscription on the bronze vessels unearthed in Shaanxi: "Wu Zheng Shang, Wei Jia Zi Chao, Nian Ding Ke." Wen Shu (夙: morning) and Shang", which coincides with the "Shang Shu Mu Oath" recorded that "Jia Zi Ming Shuang (昧: before dawn)".
During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the princes would first issue a battle book and agree on a time and place, but the Zhou army that came from afar chose to attack at dawn when it had just arrived in Makino, which explained from the side why the Zhou army had penetrated hundreds of miles into the Shang territory without encountering any resistance, until it reached The Makino on the outskirts of Chaoge, the king of Ling, who had been fighting all his life, hurriedly dispatched troops. Obviously, this was due to the sudden arrival of Zhou Jun.
2. Buying the internal response
"Lü's Spring and Autumn" once recorded that before the Battle of Muye, King Wu of Zhou secretly met with Yin Shang's courtiers Jiaozi, and the two sides agreed on the duration of the jiazi, combined with the excavated Ligui inscription, it can be seen that the Zhou army marched in a hurry in the rain, and indeed arrived at the outskirts of Chaoge on the day of Jiazi.
The reason why this date was agreed on was because it was necessary to achieve the integration of inside and outside. When recording this battle, later history books use the following description: "The Shang army turned against the enemy, and the wu wang soldiers returned to the world without bloodshed." It not only confirms the righteousness of king Wu, but also reflects the unpopularity of king Wu.
But in fact, only the subordinates of the rubber bristles rebelled in the Shang army, and more Shang troops put up desperate resistance. Because just 3 days after the war, Jiang Ziya, the pioneer of the Zhou Army, also sacrificed a large number of prisoners of war.
After conquering the capital of Yin, King Wu of Zhou also sent heavy troops to pursue and kill, and the Book of Yi Zhou records that "there are 107,770,900 yuan of 100,000,000,000 people, and 230% of the 300 million prisoners." This record, which was originally used to exaggerate the achievements of the Zhou army, reflects the fact that the Shang army was still resisting until the fall of the capital.
The disobedience of the merchants is also reflected in the archaeological findings. The excavated tomb of King Yin of Anyang confirms that there was a large-scale artificial destruction of the tomb here in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, while the jade artifacts of the late Yin Dynasty Were found in the tomb of Rui Guo in Hancheng, Shaanxi, which corroborates the fact that the Zhou soldiers destroyed and plundered the tombs in the capital of Yin Shang.
Therefore, King Keshang of Zhou Wu was far less benevolent than depicted in the history books. In the early history book "Wucheng", there is still a record of "blood flowing and drifting pestle", but the Confucians are so secretive about this record that Mencius made a famous whitewashing thesis: "It is better to believe in books than to have no books." The benevolent are invincible to the world, so that the benevolent are not benevolent, how can their blood flow and drift the pestle? Therefore, the content that was not conducive to the promotion of the benevolence of the King of Wu was deleted.
The "Chronicle of History" records that after the defeat of king Huan, he set himself on fire and died. However, the fragments of the pre-Qin version of liutao excavated from the Han tomb of Yinqueshan mention: "First wade in order to create in Yin." The day of koshi, to the wilderness of makino. The bird is beheaded in white", that is, the king was beheaded after being captured during the battle on the front line, and his head was hung on the great white flag.
This explains why, during the battle against the Shang army, the King of Wu "took the princes with a white hand", and the princes came to congratulate them. Perhaps, the truth of the Battle of Makino should be: the Zhou army sneaked into the vicinity of Chaoge, and the conceited King Of Lu thought that the Shang army had a decisive advantage over the Zhou army, so he personally led his troops to fight outside the city, but unexpectedly the Zhou army should turn against him, the King of Lu was accidentally captured, and the fighting spirit of the Shang army collapsed.